In a conventional card accessing apparatus, for example, for accessing optical cards, an optical card is placed on a stage which is supported by a pair of guide shafts which are parallel to each other. A stage feeding mechanism is connected to the stage, and an optical head is disposed above the stage and fixed to a supporting member which is mounted on a ceiling of a housing. The stage feeding mechanism includes a motor which rotates a first pulley which is mounted on an output shaft of the motor to drive the stage and optical card carried thereon. Power is transmitted from the first pulley to a driving pulley via a belt disposed therebetween. Power is further transmitted from the driving pulley to a driven pulley via a belt disposed therebetween. The stage is connected to the belt disposed between the driving and driven pulleys. When the motor rotates in reverse to reciprocate the stage, the optical card is reciprocated to a position under the optical head so that data can be read and written on the data storage area of the optical card.
In the conventional apparatus, however, the optical head is easily vibrated because the ceiling, to which the head is connected, vibrates readily. For example, the optical head vibrates excessively at starts and stops of the stage because the reaction against the starts and stops of the stage is transmitted to the optical head via the ceiling and the supporting member. Therefore, data is often misread or miswritten on the optical card because a light spot bombarded on the optical card deviates from the normal position. In addition, the data storage area collects dust because it faces upwardly. Also, the head has an objective lens which is used for card accessing and is held by a supporting member. However, the supporting member sags downwardly because of the weight of the lens, and the head moves downwardly. Accordingly, the conventional card accessing apparatus has the disadvantage that, the lens, in the above-described sagging condition, comes into contact with the data storage area, so that both the lens and the data storage area are often damaged.